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If Shaun replaces someone like Blairy on Sky, I’d be fine with that. But I wouldn't want him to stick with commentating or his current podcast for too long. It's pretty bland and feels more like a show where his friends are just hyping him up.
Great perspective. Let's celebrate his achievements. Don't think anyone on this Forum is under the illusion he is a demigod so who gives a toss too much what various numpties out there think, on either extreme spectrum.
Yeah I’d much rather see him get a proper TV gig as a commentator or presenter, I think he’d go well.
I feel like he saw it as a better story if he was 19, so he ran with that number under the premise of being uncertain. This is a guy who remembers his highlights.
Yeah it's a good point...I'm really not sure. He seems to speak really articulately about the role of a halve, how that looks and so on, and I think he is a pretty intelligent guy. I wouldn't at all rule him out of being a decent coach, although you are right with what you say. And he seems to love the sound of his own voice a bit much.
Shaun, I remember we lost that game, when you sensationally scored that try at aged 19. So, true, great try, but the team lost an important game.
Ironically this is how I felt with AFB at certain stages, though I got prosecuted for not having evidence.
I mean to be fair, it was a pretty iconic moment - I remember exactly where I was. You can't say that about many things. I remember that, the 2008 Witt try, the 2011 Inu try, the Logan Swann F up in 2007, where I was when I heard Sonny Fai died, and so on.
Joey said something outrageous (as he does with young players, although I think he's tempered it since) about SJ as a teenager, hadn't played FG yet. Then Freddie Fittler had a go at Shaun - might've been 2013 or so - and he took it awfully. Really always has.
That Fittler one always stuck with me, and it wasn’t even much of a dig, it was simply along the lines of “he needs to run the ball more and take some bruises” and the reply came “I don’t care what he thinks”
Evidence? His social media, the response to Fittler suggesting he get his jersey dirty, the bitchy swipe following a Kiwi's loss, many examples - and I was specifically referring to my never warming to him, not commenting on his team mates at all. I'm sure he's a more likeable fella than AFB, who I definitely didn't want us to sign - but AFB has been excellent, SJ pretty mixed imho
The idea of not caring what a 336-game legendary halve thinks is wild.
I’d just gotten home from Tonga v Lebanon which was a bloody sensational game, and never thought we would lose that game until the final whistle blew, then saw some blokes who couldn’t care less. League was in big trouble in this country at that point
for someone who's got such a polished public image those sorts of slips were really quite revealing imo... even if you're annoyed, you have to know better - and Fittler was 1. Just doing his job; 2. Actually making a constuctive suggestion, and 3. Actually someone who Johnson could have learned from in many ways - identified as the next big thing much earlier than Johnson, succeed in first grade much earlier, took heat for not always being involved, and owned many many big games - notably one against us when Villisanti annoyed him (I don't think we were winning it anyway, but that ensured we were done)
